If not, these needs must also be
taken into account. As a fact both considerations are present to the
minds of the Trade Boards. A Board would not willingly fix a wage which
would either (_a_) diminish the opportunity of women to obtain
employment, or (_b_) enable them to undercut men, or (_c_) fail to
provide for them if living alone.]
How far have Trade Boards actually succeeded in fixing such a minimum?
Mr. Seebohm Rowntree has put forward two sets of figures based on
pre-war prices, and, of course, requiring adjustment for the changes
that have subsequently taken place. One of these figures was designed
for a subsistence wage, the other for a "human needs" wage. The latter
was a figure which Mr. Rowntree himself did not expect to see reached in
the near future. I have compared these figures with the actual minima
for unskilled workers fixed by the Boards during 1920 and 1921, and I
find that the rates fixed are intermediate between the two. The
subsistence rate is passed, but the higher rate not attained, except for
some classes of skilled workers.
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